Editing Great Patriotic War (section)

== Background ==
<blockquote>Of course, when the United States and Britain assisted Germany's economic recovery, they did so with a view to setting a recovered Germany against the Soviet Union, to utilizing her against the land of socialism. But Germany directed her forces in the first place against the Anglo-French-American bloc. And when Hitler Germany declared war on the Soviet Union, the Anglo-French-American bloc, far from joining with Hitler Germany, was compelled to enter into a coalition with the U.S.S.R. against Hitler Germany.

Consequently, the struggle of the capitalist countries for markets and their desire to crush their competitors proved in practice to be stronger than the contradictions between the capitalist camp and the socialist camp.

- Stalin, Economic Problems (1952)<ref name=":8">Stalin, Economic Problems of Socialism in the USSR, "Inevitability of wars between capitalist countries". https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/stalin/works/1951/economic-problems/ch07.htm</ref></blockquote>

=== Soviet preparations and strategy ===
The Nazi Party was fiercely anticommunist. Fascism was always used by the bourgeois to repress communism and strikes. The Nazis even started with the Freikorps crushing the communist uprising in Germany in 1918, and killing its leader Rosa Luxemburg. Mussolini also repressed strikes immediately after gaining power.

Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy (along with British spies) also backed Trotskyist spies in the USSR. The Nazis tried to back a military coup to turn the USSR into their satellite state, led by Trotsky. The coup leader, General Tukhachevsky, was exposed and executed, and his followers were purged from the military.

Therefore, it was predictable that the Nazis would invade the USSR. The British also backed the Nazis with this expectation.

Some speculate that Stalin foresaw all this 10 years ahead. That is why Stalin had to industrialize. In the 1930s, the Soviets modified the Five Year Plan to mobilize their industry for war.<ref name=":1" />

On the other hand, capitalists were afraid to attack the USSR, because it would mean taking on all the Soviet workers, and risking the collapse of capitalism. With such risk, they would only do it if they were already at war.<blockquote>Yet the Second World War began not as a war with the U.S.S.R., but as a war between capitalist countries. Why? 

# Because war with the U.S.S.R., as a socialist land, is more dangerous to capitalism than war between capitalist countries. For whereas war between capitalist countries only puts into question the supremacy of some capitalist countries over others, war with the U.S.S.R. must certainly put into question the existence of capitalism itself.
# Because the capitalists, although they clamor for "propaganda" purposes about the aggressiveness of the Soviet Union, do not themselves believe that it is aggressive, because they are aware of the Soviet Union's peaceful policy and know that it will not itself attack capitalist countries.

- Stalin, Economic Problems (1952) <ref name=":8" /></blockquote>Therefore, Stalin would ally with one capitalist empire against the other. Fascism was more ruthless in oppressing communists, while liberalism nominally upheld political freedoms. Stalin would use the rhetoric of bourgeois democracy - a war for freedom - to find common ground with workers of capitalist countries. Then the Soviets could talk to proletarians, refute the lies about the USSR, and show them that the only system to truly free them is communism. This is how the Great Patriotic War resulted in huge worldwide victories for communism.

=== Western bourgeois support for Nazi Germany (1918-1939) ===
Throughout the 1930s, the Nazis were supported by Western finance capitalists as a weapon against the USSR. The Germans built up their military, breaking the terms of the Treaty of Versailles.

British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain favored the Nazis. The British only broke with the Nazis from September 1939 to December 1942. By the latter time, the victory at Stalingrad had sealed the fate of the Nazis, and the British moved to take control of the Nazi spy network, which was converted into the Gehlen Organization and then NATO.<ref name=":5">Saed Teymuri, The History of the USSR and the People's Democracies. Chapter 11, Section 2. Via Sovinform's post on Facebook: "Nazi Germany establishes an underground state, allies with Anglo-American intelligence - in December 1942." https://www.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=140968699009296&id=100092884981407</ref>

==== Munich Betrayal ====
In 1938, Britain approved the Nazi takeover of Czechoslovakia. This is known as the Munich Betrayal in Czechoslovakia, or the Munich Agreement in the West. It was justified to the public as "appeasement" of the Nazis. The British PM Chamberlain hoped that the Nazis would invade the USSR in exchange for this token.

A British bank in Czechoslovakia gave the Nazis billions of pounds of gold.

The USSR offered to defend Czechoslovakia, but Poland and Romania refused to let the Red Army cross through.<ref>Ragsdale, Hugh (2001). "The Butenko Affair: Documents from Soviet-Romanian Relations in the Time of the Purges, Anschluss, and Munich". ''The Slavonic and East European Review''. '''79''' (4): 698–720. doi:10.1353/see.2001.0004. ISSN 0037-6795. JSTOR 4213322.</ref>

==== Spanish Civil War ====
In the mid-1930s, the British Empire and the USA supported the Nazi-allied fascist General Franco taking over Spain, which had democratically elected a left-wing government.

The Soviets and Spanish Communists supported the Spanish Republican forces. Their war effort was sabotaged by a Fifth Column of Trotskyists and anarchists, who fought the Communists and persecuted churches, making the left so unpopular that the Francoists were able to sweep in after each brief anarchist rule.

=== Nazis conflict with Britain (1939-1943) ===
The Nazis, representing the German national bourgeois, finally broke with the British Empire as they wanted more colonies for themselves, especially Poland.

The Soviet Union exploited this conflict between capitalist powers. Nazi Germany was ideologically fiercely anti-communist, and would eventually invade the USSR to distract its people from their real problems. But while the Nazis fought Britain, they could not risk war with the USSR, so they signed a Non-Aggression Treaty with the USSR.

The USSR signed the pact because Britain refused to work with it<ref name=":0">Grover Furr, links on WWII.https://msuweb.montclair.edu/~furrg/research/mlg09/page_of_links.html</ref>, Britain may even invade, and it wanted more time to industrialize and prepare.

==== Background: Poland 1917-1939 ====
With the destruction of the Russian Empire by the Bolsheviks in 1917, Lenin proclaimed the right of self-determination for all nations of the former empire.

The Polish national bourgeois used this opportunity to create the Second Polish Republic. It was backed by the Western capitalist powers in the civil war between bourgeois and workers. Communists were brutally repressed, sent to prisons worse than the Gulag.

During peace negotiations between Poland and the Bolsheviks, the British Lord Curzon drew a line to use as the border. To its west were Polish people, to its east were Belarusians and Ukrainians. However, due to Trotsky delaying the Brest-Litovsk Treaty, Poland was able to cross the Curzon Line and seize parts of Belarus and the Ukraine. Throughout the next 20 years, Poland sought to Polonize these areas, forcing the use of the Polish language.

In 1926, Poland became a military dictatorship under Josef Pilsudski. He claimed a centrist line, but in reality kept Poland in poor conditions, with many peasants effectively enslaved, while British capitalists made good profits there. He continued the silencing of communists. Rather than openly put his opponents on trial, he used his political movement Sanacja to make them disappear.

In 1935, Pilsudski died and the fascist party Endecja (meaning "National Democracy") took over. Endecja distracted its people from their horrible conditions by directing attacks on Jews and Belarusian and Ukrainian minorities.

The Second Polish Republic was effectively subservient to Britain, which became upset when Nazi Germany began to threaten to occupy it.

Poland also signed a Non-Aggression Treaty with Nazi Germany in 1935.

==== Molotov-Ribbentrop Non-Aggression Pact ====
In 1939, the Soviets signed a Non-Aggression Pact with Nazi Germany. This enraged the Western capitalist press, accusing the Soviets of allying with Nazi Germany.

The pact contained a secret provision about spheres of influence. Romania was in the Nazi sphere of influence, while the Baltics were in the Soviet sphere of influence. "In the event of a territorial reorganization of the Polish state", Poland would be divided on the Curzon Line.

The secret provision did not require any invasion or destruction of the Polish Republic.

==== Nazi invasion of Poland (September 1939) ====
The Nazis invaded and destroyed the Second Polish Republic. The Polish leaders put up no serious resistance, fleeing to Romania - thereby saying "it's over".

Britain declared war on Nazi Germany. Poland and Britain repeatedly refused Soviet troops on Polish territory.<ref name=":0" />

After the Polish state was effectively destroyed, two weeks after the Nazi invasion, the USSR sent troops to claim its side of the Curzon Line, per the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact. Nazi troops had already crossed the line, seeking expansion, and had to be escorted out under the barrel of a gun. (This has been falsely reported as a "joint Soviet-Nazi military parade.")

The USSR sending its troops to push back the Nazis is called the "Nazi-Soviet invasion of Poland" in Western revisionism.

Under international law, the USSR never invaded Poland.

The territory taken by the USSR was ethnically majority Belarusian and Ukrainian, and therefore split between the Belarusian SSR and Ukrainian SSR. The Russian SFSR played no role.

==== Katyn Massacre ====
In the occupation of Poland, the Nazis murdered up to 22,000 Polish officers and dumped their bodies in mass graves. They tried to blame this on the Soviets, a lie which has been maintained by Western capitalists.<ref>Saed Teymuri, Katyn.https://sovinform.net/Katyn.htm</ref> <ref>Grover Furr, The Official Version of the Katyn Massacre Disproven.https://msuweb.montclair.edu/~furrg/research/furr_katyn_preprint_0813.pdf</ref>

In 1990, Boris Yeltsin fabricated a letter, allegedly from Stalin to Beria ordering the Katyn Massacre. It has been debunked.<ref>Grover Furr, Discuss Katyn.https://msuweb.montclair.edu/~furrg/pol/discuss_katyn041806r.html</ref> Using this letter, Western bourgeois sources claim "the Soviets admitted their crime", even though Boris Yeltsin was no communist.

=== Sovietization of the Baltics (Summer 1940) ===
With Germany on the border, the USSR achieved a military deal with the Baltic states. The USSR had no intention of annexation or Sovietization of the Baltic states, but once they tried to sign a secret deal with Nazi Germany threatening the USSR, it supported their people's uprisings.<ref>Geoffrey Roberts, Soviet Policy and the Baltic States.https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/09592299508405982</ref>

The Baltic workers rose up against their dictatorships with a general strike.<ref>IskoLat on X. https://x.com/IskoLat/status/1860818453801664774</ref> They set up People's Democracies, only allowing the Popular Front to run. The Popular Front included communist and independent candidates, chosen in primaries by meetings of the common people. Bourgeois politicians refused to participate, claiming the Popular Front was a Soviet puppet. The Popular Front candidates won with overwhelming popularity, and then voted to join the USSR.